Those Who Stole Another Day
by Lunalove25
Summary: What's the logical thing to do when you've got a time machine? Test it on yourself, of course! Kiera and Emily get sent back in time to New York by their crazy friend Cara - "for science", she claims - with one goal in mind - find each other. But when things don't go as planned, what they do end up finding is more than they ever expected.
1. Chapter 1

**Because it's St. Patrick's Day, I figured what better time to finally post this Newsies story! Oh yeah, that's right – I'm a Newsies fan. Be amazed. **

**Shoutout to Wapomeo Huntress for giving me this idea and sticking with me while I attempted to wrangle my muse into submission. **

**Disclaimer: I own nothing. Seriously, NOTHING. **

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**Kiera's POV **

"You want to explain this again?"

My friend Cara stopped messing with the machine she'd been working with and glared at me. "Kiera, I explained it a billion times!"

"Yeah, but it's Kiera. She doesn't listen to any of us," my best friend Emily put in. I shot her a glare before we both turned our attention back to Cara. "But seriously," she said. "What's it do?"

"I told you: it's a time machine. I'm gonna use it to send you both back in time to different parts of a city. You have to find each other. Once you do, you'll be transported back."

"Oh, great. So we only have to search an entire freaking city."

"Basically," I said. "It's okay, though. I will always find you." I said the last bit dramatically, quoting one of our favorite shows. Emily stifled a laugh and was probably about to quote something back when Cara clapped her hands together, making us jump.

"Okay!" she said. "You ready?"

"Ready as we'll ever be," I muttered. We sat down in the machine while Cara started punching in numbers. Emily of course had to start humming the T.A.R.D.I.S. theme, but before I could even think about joining in, there was a giant flash of light and I felt myself falling. I heard Emily scream somewhere near me and I reached out but she wasn't there. Suddenly everything turned pitch black and all my senses stopped.

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**Yes I'm aware that it's short. But this is what happens when you try posting something in the morning before school. The rest of the chapters will be longer, and will actually feature characters that you know. Yay! **


	2. Every Irishman's Birthday

**Apologies for the delay, but between school and writer's block, I've been pretty stuck. Updates will likely be sporadic until June, as a fair warning. But hey, at least this chapter includes characters that you guys will know. Of course, not all of them are going to be introduced here. Gotta save some for later. Also, apologies for Spot's dialogue in case it's weird. I haven't seen the movie in a while and I'm bad with accents. Please spare me your fan rage and projectile weaponry. **

**Also, just thought I'd clear this up: Kiera and Emily land six months (ish) before the strike, which is why David, Les, and Sarah won't be making appearances. Just keep that in mind so there's no confusion as to why characters are acting the way they are. **

**Disclaimer: I own nothing. Well, no, not true. I own some things. But not this. **

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**Kiera's POV **

The world was spinning and I couldn't make sense of what was left or right, up or down. When I was finally able to see and stand up straight, I looked around. Of course I'd landed in a bathroom.

I looked around again, trying to size up the place. Old-timey, old smelling. Lovely.

I opened the door a crack and stepped out, and instantly got lost in the mob of people. The place was _packed_ and I could barely see above the crowd. I attempted to crawl my way through. The key word being 'attempted'. I made it to the bar where a boy with sandy blonde hair sat.

"Another round," the boy said to the bartender, who quickly went to the back to get more alcohol. He looked barely a year older than me. Why was he drinking like that, especially alone? I sat down next to him, trying not to look awkward. He glanced at me briefly before turning to speak.

"And who might you be?" he asked with a Brooklyn accent that was mixed with Irish.

"Kiera," I replied. "And you are...?"

"Spot," he said, right as the bartender brought back the promised booze and hurried away to look after another customer. "Spot Conlon."

I thought for a moment. Spot Conlon, huh? "The name rings a bell."

He smirked. "'Course it does, doll."

I rolled my eyes. "Don't call me 'doll'."

"Suit yourself." He shrugged, turning back to his booze. I turned around in my seat and began to look for the exit. I finally saw it and was about to stand when Spot spoke, his voice pulling me back to my seat.

"Lookin' for somethin'?"

I glared at him. "My friend, but I don't think she's here."

"If she's smart, she's inside," he said nonchalantly.

"What do you mean?" He shrugged.

"It's every Irishmen's birthday -St. Patrick's day."

"So?"

"So every Irishman in Brooklyn's gonna be drunk and on the street. It ain't safe for girls to be out, 'specially this late at night."

I rolled my eyes. "I can fend for myself, you know."

Spot scoffed. "Yeah, right." He glanced at my hair and my clothes. "'Specially lookin' like that," he said with a smirk.

"What's THAT supposed to mean?" I growled, my voice teetered over the edge "of Tartarus" as Emily would put it.

"Nothin', nothin'," he said, brushing off my angry tone like it was an annoying bug. "Just that goils 'round here don't dress... Well, like that."

I glared my death glare at him. "Thanks, but no thanks. I know how to take care of myself and I don't need some egotistical drunk."

He pretended to be hurt, placing a hand over his heart with a wounded expression. "That hurt...if I cared." He smirked again, this time with his eyebrow raised in the most annoying way.

I scoffed. "Oh, really? Whatever." I got up and walked off, ignoring him calling my name. There was only one place I was going and that was outta here.

Until he somehow managed to reach the door before I did.

"What now?" I asked, annoyed.

"I was serious about the danger," Spot said, and his tone made me believe him. "Think ya can handle a street full of drunks when you don't know where your friend might be?" I didn't say anything so he continued. "Look, let me take ya to Queens. The Newsies there'll give ya a place to spend the night, and they can help you find your friend in the morning."

"Why are you so eager to help me?" I asked.

Spot shrugged. "Brooklyn's a rough place. And honestly? You need it."

I smirked. "Bad boy with a heart of gold, then? Alright, I'll take you up on your offer if only to get you out of my hair. Let's go to Queens." Spot's smirk returned as he opened the door and I followed him out of the bar. He had been right – there were tons of people, clearly drunk, roaming the streets. Might've been trouble, but at this point it didn't really matter.

I followed Spot up a ladder onto the roof of a nearby building, and we went from roof to roof for a bit until the city seemed to change and I figured we were in Queens. It was hard to tell for sure at night. We got down onto the streets and kept walking. Things were definitely a lot quieter here.

I followed Spot down a couple blocks and we stopped at a building that looked habitable, but it had definitely seen better days. It wasn't in bad shape, but it was definitely lived-in. Kind of felt home-y, actually. He rapped on the door with his knuckle a couple of times and after a few minutes, it opened and a girl poked her head out.

"What do you want, Spot?" she asked. She sounded pissed and I didn't blame her – it _was _pretty late.

"Angel," Spot said, "this is Kiera." He gestured to me. "I need ya to give her a place to stay for the night, and in the morning, help her find her friend. Ya wouldn't happen to know where she is, would ya?"

"Depends," Angel replied. "What's her name?"

"Emily," I said.

Angel shook her head. "Haven't heard of her. But since she's not here and clearly not in Brooklyn, that means she's in 'Hatten. Don't worry – that's Kelly's turf. He'll look out for her. We can head over in the morning." I nodded and followed Angel inside, looking over my shoulder to see Spot smirking. I rolled my eyes at him, then Angel shut the door behind me and I got my first good look at her. She was about an inch shorter than me, with long black hair and tan skin. _Pretty_, I thought, _so why's she working as a newsie?_

"Lucky for you, we've got an extra bed since one of ours had to head back home," Angel said.

"Alright, thanks. I'll be ready to go whenever you are," I replied, and she smiled.

"Early riser or just eager?"

"Eager," I admitted. "Somebody's gotta look out for Emily, especially in a place like this."

"Relax, Kelly won't let anything happen to her," Angel said. "She's your sister?"

"Might as well be. We've been friends for as long as I can remember."

She smiled again. "It's good to know that there're still people like that. Well I'm heading back to bed."

"Alright. Thanks again, Angel."

"No problem, Kiera. Nice meeting you," she replied. We headed upstairs and she showed me to the room. It was _tiny_, but all the others were packed with people so I was fine with it. I promptly crashed on the bed. I was exhausted from traversing the city with Spot, but at least I had a lead to where Emily was. Assuming this Kelly guy had found her. If he hadn't…. well, I'd deal with that if and when it came up.

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**Next chapter we get to see how Emily is doing, and Jack is introduced! Yes, she's not wandering the streets of New York at night. I'm not **_**that**_** mean… usually. **


	3. Meeting Jack

**Sorry about the wait. School's been rough and my muse has only been able to concentrate in small bursts. **

**Well, we finally get to find out what Emily's been up to. This chapter will include more characters that you're familiar with, so hopefully I do them justice. Also, reminder – Les and David are not in this story for reasons explained last chapter. Besides, they didn't even live at the lodging house, so using Les wouldn't have made any sense. Sorry about Jack's accent – normally I'd include it but I have no idea how to write a Manhattan accent so just pretend that you can hear it and everything will be fine. **

**Disclaimer: I own nothing (Plot twist: I own everything. Also I'm going to stop putting these because by now you should know what I do and don't own. So yeah.)**

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**Emily's POV **

When the world stopped spinning and I opened my eyes, I had no idea where I was. The room I was in was dark so it took a few minutes for my night vision to kick in, and all of my horror movie survival instincts told me not to move until I could see. When I finally could, I didn't find much. The room was full of crates and boxes. It was probably used for storage.

Of course with my luck I'd end up in a storage room.

I carefully made my way around the crates that were scattered across the floor – no telling what was in the dark, after all – and made it to the door. I turned the knob and the door opened with a slow creak.

When I stepped out into the hallway I found myself in a long corridor with rooms branching off and a set of stairs at the end of the hall. I made my way towards it, trying to avoid any planks of wood that looked like they would make noise if I stepped on them.

My success was short-lived when, just as I made it to the stairs, I heard a voice behind me.

"Who are you?" I cringed and turned and saw a boy, maybe nine or ten years old, looking at me through sleepy eyes. His messy hair was sticking up on one side. Somehow I must have woken him up. Looks like I'd have to take ninja off of my résumé.

"Sorry," I whispered, not wanting to wake anyone else up. "I'm leaving. I'm just a little lost. I'm looking for my friend."

"That's okay," he replied. "I've got a friend that can help. What's your name?"

"Emily," I said, relaxing a little bit. "What's yours?"

"I'm Snipes," he said with a smile. Odd name, but considering that I didn't know exactly when I had landed in time, it may have been normal then, so I smiled back.

"Nice to meet you. So…. Who's your friend?" I asked, looking around and hoping that whoever it was was a light sleeper.

"His name is Jack. He can help you for sure," Snipes said. Then before I could stop him, he turned to face the stairs and screamed, "_**JACK**_!" I mentally facepalmed. I really should have known better.

"Snipes?" I heard a guy that sounded about seventeen-ish say as he came down the stairs from above us. There was a lot of background noise – Snipes must have woken up the entire place. He had a Manhattan accent that I only recognized from watching reruns of Law and Order. "What's the matter? I heard –" He made it down the stairs and froze when he saw me. He had brown hair that was messy from sleep and was fairly well-built, which I only noticed because _of course_ he was shirtless. Before either of us could say anything, people flooded in from both floors. It was all guys, ranging from younger than ten to teens and they were all staring at me like I was an alien lifeform. The attention was overwhelming and all I wanted to do at that moment was run and hide somewhere.

"What's a girl doin' here?" I heard one of them ask, and after that it was chaos. "She ain't mine!" was chorused around the hallway and I began to rule out potential time periods in my head from their clothing and attitudes about women. I definitely wasn't "theirs".

Eventually Jack shut them up. "HEY! Alright, enough," he said, and the masses fell silent. Clearly he was the leader. Then he turned to Snipes. "Snipes, you wanna tell us who this is?"

"This is Emily," Snipes said, beaming because _of course he was helping and not making my chances of finding Kiera even worse due to distractions! _"She's lost and looking for her friend, and I knew you could help."

Jack, and everyone else in the room, turned to me. "You're lost?" he asked.

I nodded.

"Then how'd you get in here?"

"Long story," I replied, not sure who to trust yet, or if to trust anyone at all.

Jack sighed. "Figured it would be. Alright, head up the stairs to the roof – I'll meet you there in five minutes. The rest of you, get back to sleep." The other boys began to complain, but they still obeyed. I cast a glance at Snipes, who nodded encouragingly, and then I began to head up the stairs. It only took a few flights to reach the roof, and it was _such _a relief to be in the open air again. I took a deep breath and sat down, watching the sky. I heard a noise behind me and turned to see Jack come over. He was wearing a shirt this time, so I figured he must have put one on for my sake.

He sat down next to me, though not too close, like he was afraid of invading my personal space. "So, I don't believe we've been properly introduced. Name's Jack, Jack Kelly."

The name rang a bell somewhere but I couldn't think of it at the moment. "Emily," I replied. "So I guess you want an explanation as to why I was sneaking around your place?"

"Isn't really mine, but sure."

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," I said, completely serious. Jack looked like he wasn't sure what to make of me. Maybe it was my outfit – I doubt girls from whatever time period this was wore jean shorts and tank tops. Of course Cara wouldn't calibrate her damn machine to at least allow for a change of time period-appropriate clothes.

"You sure about that?" he asked.

"Oh, yeah. Positive."

He shrugged. "Can't argue with you there, especially when accordin' to Snipes, you need help?"

"I'm looking for my friend, Kiera," I said, catching his eye and noticing that they were a rather nice-looking shade of brown. "She's somewhere in the city, I'm just not sure where exactly."

Jack was silent for a moment, then said, "It isn't safe to be out on the streets, 'specially tonight."

"Why?" He looked at me like I had grown a second head.

"It's St. Patrick's Day. All of Brooklyn's out partyin' and things get…messy." I wondered what would happen if Kiera got caught up in that. No doubt that she could handle herself, but she might draw unwanted attention…. "Got any leads as to where she is?" he asked.

I shook my head. "None. Just that she's somewhere in the city."

Jack got quiet again, then looked at me with a determined expression. "Right. Well, I can tell that all you want to do is go out lookin' for her, and since we can't have that, here's the plan: you'll stay here for the rest of the night. In the mornin' I'll send out some of my boys to Brooklyn and see what they can find while you and I head to Queens. If she's not at one, she'll be at the other. Sound good?" I looked up at the stars as I considered my options. He was right – I did just want to run off and look until I found Kiera. We had been friends for so long that it was second nature to me to want to look after her, even when I knew she didn't need it. However, Jack was right. It wouldn't be safe to go out into the city to look with drunks everywhere and cops that were probably not to be trusted. Some things never change, I guess.

I turned back to Jack. "I don't really have a choice, do I?"

"Not unless you want to take your chances alone in the streets."

"I really don't. So I guess we've got a deal."

He smiled. "Good things come to those who wait, darling." We got off the roof and headed back inside. Some of the other boys were peering out of the doors of their rooms, but they ran back in as we walked past. We went down to the first floor where Jack spoke with an old man who apparently owned the place. I guess he trusted Jack because he didn't seem opposed to the idea, and greeted me politely. I did my best not to act too out of place. Jack then took me back up a flight and to a room that I assumed was his.

"You can stay here for the night," he said, holding the door for me.

"What about you?" I asked, not going inside yet. If he was going to play the host then I had to politely refuse.

"I'll be fine," he said.

"Jack –"

"Trust me," Jack said. "I was havin' trouble sleeping anyways." I wanted to ask what was wrong, but something told me that given time, he'd tell me. Of course, time wasn't something I intended to spend a lot of here.

"Alright, be like that," I replied, crossing my arms and he smiled. "Goodnight, Jack."

"Goodnight, Emily," he said, closing the door behind him. I walked over to the bed and lay back – it wasn't terribly comfortable but I had traveled enough and dealt with worse so I wasn't going to complain. It would be fine for one night.

"Until tomorrow, Kiera," I said to the empty room. "I'll find you."

* * *

**I really, really hope I did Jack justice. It's been a while since I've seen the movie so here's to hoping I got him right. More familiar faces to look forward to (or not) next chapter. Until next time! **


	4. She's A Lady

**Sorry about the delay - had a writing funk this summer and I've been uninspired except in short bursts ever since. I saw the Broadway version of Newsies back in June - which was amazing, by the way - but I won't be mixing it in with this story. This is strictly movie-Newsies. **

**Chapter title will make sense in retrospect, and anyone that knows the song gets a cookie. **

**Emily's POV **

* * *

The next morning I was woken up by the noise of the boys moving through the hallways. I peered out of Jack's room and found that they were running around, getting ready for the day. It was pretty chaotic.

Snipes ran over when he saw me. "Mornin', Emily!"

I ran a hand through my hair and then rubbed the sleep out of my eyes. "Morning. Is this place always so...hectic?"

"Pretty much," he replied. "C'mon, Jack's waitin' for us downstairs."

I followed Snipes through the crowds and down the flights of stairs to find Jack standing at the front door.

"Morning," Snipes and I said as we walked up to Jack.

"Mornin'," he replied. "Ready to go?"

"Yeah. Anything from the boys you sent to Brooklyn?" I asked. Jack shook his head.

"Nothin' yet, I'm afraid. They probably went to talk to Conlon, see if he saw anything. We'll head to Queens and see what Angel can tell us."

Jack held the door open for me and Snipes, and as we were walking through, I asked, "So, who's Conlon?"

"Spot Conlon," Jack explained. "He's in charge of the Brooklyn newsies. Plenty of our boys are scared of him but won't admit it."

"But not me!" Snipes chimed in, grinning. I looked down at him and smiled.

"That, I can believe."

We left the building and the other newsies flooded out behind us, heading onto the streets to get the papers and sell their wares.

"Alright, it shouldn't take us too long to get to Queens -" Jack started to say, but he was interrupted by two guys that looked like brothers walking over that didn't look friendly.

"Well, well, look what the cat dragged in," one of them said. They ignored Snipes completely and focused on me and Jack.

"And who's this?" the other added, looking at me. "Kelly, you never said nothin' about havin' a girl. Where'd you get her? I might want one."

"She ain't mine, and she ain't for sale, 'specially to the likes of you," Jack said. "Right, Emily?"

"Definitely," I said, giving the two brothers dirty looks.

"Emily, huh? Y'know, you seem like a smart girl. Too smart to be hangin' round with a guy like Kelly. Pretty girl like you, bein' seen with a guy like him? It could...well, it could upset some people." The first brother was quite a bit taller than me, so he had the comfort of looking down but I just glared straight up at him.

"How many?" I asked. "Or can you not count that high?"

Snipes sniggered behind me and Jack looked impressed as hell. The brother that I had insulted turned slightly red, which just told me that I was right. I smirked, he glared, and I saw him ball his hand into a fist.

"I wouldn't normally hit a girl -" he started to say, but Jack threw his arms around both brothers' shoulders.

"In that case, don't break your code on her account. Besides, she ain't a girl - she's a goddamn lady." And with that, Jack grabbed the hats off of both of their heads and ran for it.

The newsies that hadn't already left watched as the brothers chased Jack around and cheered for him. Several of them yelled, "Go get 'em, Cowboy!" which I figured was Jack's nickname.

"Who were those guys?" I asked Snipes.

"Those were the Delancey Brothers!" Snipes said. "We hate 'em!"

"I can tell," I chuckled. Snipes and I leaned against a street sign to wait for Jack when someone screamed my name.

"_EMILY_!"

Before I had time to turn, I was tackled by someone with dyed red hair with purple tips. And considering where we were, there was only one person that could be.

"Kiera!"

We fell onto the sidewalk and she hugged me. "You're not dead!"

I laughed. "Neither are you! Now lemme up!" She stood and then helped me stand.

"Is this who you were lookin' for?" Snipes asked, causing us to both look at him.

"Yup. Snipes, this is my friend Kiera. Kiera, meet Snipes."

"Nice to meet you," Kiera said. "Thanks for looking after her for me."

"The credit should go to Jack, though it's not like she needed lookin' after," Snipes replied.

"Jack?" Kiera asked, and I gave her my just-wait face. However, before Jack joined our little group, a girl with long black hair and tan skin came running over, breathing hard.

"Geez girl, you've got legs. I haven't seen someone run that fast in ages," she panted.

"Sorry Angel, but I warned you that I was eager," Kiera reminded her. "Speaking of which! Angel, meet Emily. Emily, this is Angel. She's the head of the Queens newsies."

I smiled. "Right, I think Jack mentioned you. We were actually on our way over, but we had some, uh… distractions to deal with."

Angel grinned at Kiera. "Told ya she'd be safe with Kelly." Jack came back over, evidently done leading the Delanceys around Manhattan, and she said, "Well, speak of the Devil. Havin' fun there?"

Jack grinned. "Always. So, Emily - this is your friend? Kiera, right?"

"Yup. A little birdie tells me that I owe you for keeping her off the streets?" Kiera asked.

"Lemme tell you - it wasn't easy."

"Um, I'm right here?" I remarked, and the others laughed.

"So, what plans do you two have now that you're in the city?" Angel asked, and I realized that something was very, very wrong.

"Uh…. We're not sure yet…"

"Well, we could always use a couple extra hands in Queens, and we've got the space if you wanna stay."

I looked at Kiera. "Can we talk in private for a minute?" She nodded and I dragged her back towards the lodging house.

"What's up?" she asked.

"We shouldn't be here."

"In this city? Or this century? Because I think that applies to both."

"No, no - I mean we shouldn't be here _now_. Cara told us that once we found each other, we'd instantly be teleported back home. Meaning that the instant you tackled me, we should've left."

"Maybe there's a glitch in the machine?" Keira asked. "Or it's broken?"

"If it's broken, how do we get home?!"

She grabbed my shoulders. "Hey, relax. We have options, remember? We'll make the most of it until we contact Cara and find out what's going on."

"How are we supposed to contact her?"

Kiera lifted up a locket on a chain from around her neck. "Video transmitter. She gave it to me before we left."

"Why didn't I get one?"

"She said that she'd been working on one for you as well but ran out of time. Anyway, according to Cara it runs on solar energy so I'm gonna wear it for as long as I can today, and by tomorrow it should be charged enough that we can call her. In the meantime, let's stick with the newsies. Okay?"

I nodded. "Yeah. Okay. Though I have to say, I had hoped to be home by now."

"Me too. But we might as well make the most of it."

We walked back over to where Snipes, Jack and Angel were waiting for us.

"Everything okay?" Jack asked.

"Yeah, fine." Kiera addressed Angel.

"We're not sure how long we'll be in the city, but if you'll have us, we'll be happy to work with you in Queens."

Angel smiled. "And we're happy to have you."

"You'll come back and see us, right Emily?" Snipes asked me, and I smiled.

"Yeah, of course. Besides, it's not that far, right?"

"Nah, it's no trouble. See you after work, ladies," Jack said, shooting me a smile before he and Snipes went off to the distribution center.

"Ladies," Angel said, imitating Jack and making us laugh, "follow me to Queens."


	5. Queens

**Kiera's POV **

* * *

Emily and I followed Angel back to Queens. On the way, we swapped stories.

"Of course you'd end up in a bar," Emily said, and I laughed.

"Technically I ended up in the bar's bathroom," I clarified. "And do they even call them bars here?"

I looked at Angel, who shrugged. "People here usually call 'em pubs. If they're sober, that is."

"Either way," Emily said, "I'm just glad you're safe. Jack kept going on about how dangerous it was out."

"Yeah, St. Patrick's Day. Just like back home, huh?"

"Same drunks roaming the streets and same untrustworthy cops. Makes you wonder if things will ever change, huh?"

"Doubt it'll happen, but we can hope."

By then we had arrived back in Queens. We made our way to their lodging house, where Angel introduced us to the other newsies.

"Hey, _listen up_!" Angel shouted to be heard over the racket of the other newsies getting ready to go out and sell for the day. When it quieted down she gestured to us. "This is Kiera and Emily - they'll be staying with us for a while. They might be sellin' after they get their bearings of the city, so Luck, you an' Pirate'll be showing 'em around and teaching 'em. Got it?" A girl that looked a little younger than us with pale skin and straight red hair, and another, younger still, maybe nine, with curly blonde hair and bright blue eyes stepped forward.

The rest of the newsies went back to getting ready and Angel said, "Just stick with them and you'll be fine," to us before leaving, probably to get ready as well.

The redhead spoke up first. "I'm Luck, and this is Pirate."

"Hey," we said. Luck looked at me a little closer.

"Weren't you here this morning?" she asked.

"Yeah," I replied. "Angel let me stay the night. Spot brought me here." They both looked surprised, but Emily spoke up first.

"Spot Conlon?" she asked.

"You know him?" Pirate chimed in.

"I know of him. Jack told me about him."

"You two seem to know the city pretty well already," Luck noted. "This'll be easy."

* * *

We spent the rest of the morning exploring Queens with Luck and Pirate, since just that one borough had a lot more area to cover than i had initially thought. Neither Emily nor I were New York natives so the layout of the city was confusing, especially with so many people around. I was just glad we had guides that knew how to navigate it.

They spent most of the tour showing us good places to hawk papers and promised to give us some pointers later on, since we'd need them to make some money. We _did_ have some spare change in our pockets, but it probably wasn't smart to go waving that kind of money around when it was worth so much more in this time period. Besides, it wouldn't last forever so making some would come in handy.

The lodging house wasn't too far from the Brooklyn border, so they decided to take us there when it got closer to noon so we could see what it was like and grab some food, which we were totally okay with. As we approached it I began to recognize places and things from the night before.

"Man, it looks like a twister went through there," Emily noted when we saw all the trash and debris from the celebrations, some of which were still going on.

"Nah, that's just Brooklyn's way of celebratin'," Pirate said.

"Trying to get through crowds last night sure didn't feel like a celebration," I said, kind of to myself but the others still caught it.

"You seem like you've got street smarts," Luck said, "but Brooklyn can get sketchy - _especially_ on holidays. You're lucky you had Conlon with you."

Something caught my attention out of the corner of my eye, and I turned to see none other than Spot himself, practically strutting towards us. "Speak of the devil…" I muttered.

"Well, we _are _basically on his turf," Emily murmured back just as Spot came close enough to join the conversation.

"Well. fancy seein' you all here," Spot said as he approached us. He focused on me as he said, "Didn't think I'd be seein' you again, doll."

"I thought I told you not to call me that," I said through slightly gritted teeth.

"Funny, I don't recall…" he said, and I knew he was doing it just to annoy me. Emily knew me well enough to know that it would be a good time to change the subject.

"So, you must be Spot," she said. "Jack told me about you."

"You know Kelly?" he asked.

"Somewhat."

He turned back to look at me. "Is this who you were lookin' for?" I nodded, and he added, "Told ya she'd be safe with Kelly." I rolled my eyes - like I had really needed assurances that Emily would be okay. Especially from him of all people.

* * *

We finished our tour and Pirate and Luck left us at the Queens lodging house while they went out to sell their last few papers, so Emily and I went to the roof.

"You said it would have enough by tomorrow."

"Yeah," I said as I pulled out the locket, "but that doesn't mean we can't try it now." We sat on the edge together as I opened it and held it out in front of us. We waited while it absorbed the sunlight and processed the light it had been absorbing since that morning. After a minute, the inside of the upper section of the locket began to glow, and we heard a voice.

"_Can't believe…. stupid machine…._"

"... Cara?" Emily asked.

There was a pause and a shudder, then:

"_Guys_?"

"Cara!" we exclaimed. Man, it was so good to hear her.

"_Guys! I'm so glad you're okay!_"

"We're fine!" I said. "But what happened? Why aren't we home?"

"_I don't know! I think something went wrong with the machine. I'm still doing tests…" _

"You mean we're stuck here?" Emily asked, alarmed.

"_I just need to finish the tests, and then I'll know what caused the problem. It should be an easy fix." _

"Should be?" I repeated.

"_Should. I'll contact you if anything comes up. In the meantime, just try and lay low. Get some clothes that blend in better._"

"Angel said she'd try to get us some better clothes," Emily chimed in. "I talked to her on the way back from the Brooklyn border, while you were griping about Spot," she added when I gave her a confused look.

"I wasn't griping!"

"Okay, complaining. Same thing."

"Is not!"

"Is too!"

"_You guys!_" Cara interrupted before we got carried away. "_Just try and relax. It sounds like you've found some people you can trust. Stay with them until we can figure this out. Okay?_"

We nodded. "Okay."

"_I'll talk to you again soon_," Cara said before the transmission ended. She must have cut it off from her end.

"Man, this sucks," Emily said.

"I know. But it's not all bad."

"How do you figure that?"

"We're not alone. That's a start, right?"

"Yeah, I guess."


End file.
